why it takes planning to have a night like this
When we began to plan our trip to Montreal, we knew (or so we thought) that spending New Years in a big city would be a totally different experience than house parties and choosing between two under 21 bars in Toledo. Montreal literally had a website dedicated to the clubs and festivities that would be taking place (so it has to be cool, right?). Tickets had to be bought in advance to get into these INSANE[ly advertised] parties and they cost well over $75. We weren’t quite sure if we should spend that amount of money on a club we had never been to before in case we were getting scammed. And we also didn’t know if there was a chance of cheaper and still as fun options.
So we didn’t buy the crazy club tickets. This is what our night ended up looking like instead.
After driving 11+ hours, we arrived to our hostel on Dec 31. Yup. We literally got up at 4am, drove until 4pm, and then proceeded to party after a quick nap. To be young, I guess. We checked out the bar downstairs, but as trying to smush into a solid wall of strangers with only a bit of sleep under our belt isn’t exactly what I would call thrilling, we retreated to our room again to talk ourselves through what our night should be like. We had no club tickets and no idea where any of the bars or clubs were. We had yet to take on the “screw it, I’ll never see these people again in my life” mindset so tbh we were pretty unsure of the future of our le réveillon du jour de l’an but I think we did a good job in the end.
Always always always ask the hostel desk workers. They either love to explore the city they work in or might actually live there. Read: They know where the parties are AT! And as we found out, La Rue de Crescent has a majority of the bars which happened to be 5 minutes away from HI Montreal (our hostel). We took a quick walk and were faced with maaany different options. Now, as underage Americans, we really didn’t have much confidence when it came to ordering drinks or choosing a bar. We landed on this pub called Ziggy’s (oddly similar to BGSU) and to be frank, the worst social hour for two young people looking to party. The bar was nice, but filled with middle agers who I don’t think realized it was even New Year’s?? After ordering insanely priced drinks at the bar from an attractive, Scottish bartender, we proceeded to relax and figure out what our next move was. Apparently, the city puts on fireworks and live music near the water and that with the weather being so warm, it would be a perfect time to go, as our cutie bartender suggested. Unsure about leaving the safety of a mediocre bar, we stared as the people across from us literally drank until the words coming out of their mouth sounded like babies gurgling. Yeeeeah, it was time to leave.
On our way out of the bar, we happened to run into a pair of young guys that were also looking for a fun night. We convinced them to leave their overpriced club tickets and called an Uber. An Uber that didn’t speak English, or really any French. Cue my broken Franglais and some yelling, eventually the driver found us after threatening to drop the ride and we all piled into the car to go downtown. It was so warm out that the snow had turned to rain. And the guys decided it would be a great idea to leave their jackets in at the club coat check so they didn’t have to pay $5. Again, to be young I guess? After dropping us off as close as he could, we made it to the free outdoor party. There was good live music playing, including Stromae, my favorite French singer. We found a spot along the water to watch the fireworks and counted TROIS, DEUX, UN! with the locals to the new year.
After the fireworks, we desperately wanted a warm bar and some food, but everything was very exclusive or full to the brim. We tried to call an Uber to take us home but it took about 40 minutes. At this point, the guys were getting annoyed because they were wet and cold in just their tshirts. We finally found an Uber, dropped us off at the hostel and the boys at their club, peeled off our sopping wet clothes and clammered into our bunk beds. It was a fun night, for sure. But it was 100% not what we were expecting.
New Year’s is a party with high expectations.
Every New Year’s is a time when we expect to have fun. And if we’re not having as much fun as we imagined, then it doesn’t live up to our high expectations. Instead of buying super expensive club tickets, we decided to use that money to go dog sledding that week instead. Using the city’s free outdoor experience was really fun and we arrived just in time for the fireworks so it was parfait (minus getting extremely wet). I think we wanted this huge city party experience which takes a lot of effort and $$$ to make happen. Sometimes the best times are made with new and old friends and a little adventure. While not the most exotic night, we definitely made some memories I won’t forget.
PS: I’m still not sure how wild those clubs/parties were. But I will say that our friends said while some are advertised as “open bar”, the bar gets pretty packed and you can barely get a drink. The alc is covered in your cover charge, but you don’t really get to get it. The party might actually be worth it though if you do some digging about the best place to go.
BroadsAbroad 